As computing power and data storage capacities have exponentially increased over the last several decades, a corresponding amount of stored data has also exponentially increased. Computers which were once the domain of text files and a few low resolution pictures are now often used to store thousands of high resolution pictures and hours of video. Television sets are being upgraded to show high definition video. New generations of optical discs have been developed to hold the high definition video. The discs can hold as much as 50 gigabytes of data on each side. This is enough to store several hours of video in a high definition format. Ever denser storage formats are being developed to store the increasing amounts of information.
Moving and transmitting the vast amounts of digital information is becoming more challenging. Each year, more electronic devices are available that can digitally communicate with other devices. Electronics including computers, high definition television, high definition radio, digital music players, portable computers, and many other types of devices have been designed to transmit and receive large amounts of information. Many computers now receive broadband internet which is broadcast throughout the home. Televisions are receiving multiple high definition signals from cable and fiber optics.
In order to transmit the immense quantities of data stored in computers and broadcast to televisions and other electronics devices, the data is transmitted at ever faster rates. However, transmission rates are not keeping up with the explosion in data. For example, to transmit a typical 15 gigabyte high definition movie from an optical disk to a home entertainment system, it requires 100 megabits to be transmitted per second for twenty minutes. For many users, taking 20 minutes to transfer a movie can be burdensome.
Similarly, higher bandwidth communication between processors, memory, other chips, and computer boards within a computer system is needed. One way to decrease the amount of time it takes to move large amounts of digital information between computer chips is to transmit the information at faster speeds. Transmission speeds that can move large volumes of data in a reasonable time, however, have historically been too costly to be broadly used in consumer electronics.